The Forensic Anthropology Laboratory in a Medical Examiner Setting

Abstract

Forensic anthropologists are well-established as a visible and necessary part of the medicolegal team that determines an unknown victim’s identity, analyzes traumatic injuries, establishes time-since-death, dierentiates human from nonhuman bone, creates a biological prole for unknown human remains, and testies in court proceedings regarding these issues (Stewart 1979; Ubelaker 1999). Forensic anthropologists also provide support to law enforcement during the search and recovery phase, education to their peers, and outreach to the community. Most of these roles fall under the aegis of the medical examiner, coroner, or justice of the peace who has jurisdictionIntroduction 23 e Facilities 26 Duties and Sta 31 Duties of the Forensic Anthropologist 34Field Recovery 34 Mechanisms of Case Assignment 37Laboratory Analysis of Skeletal and Decomposing Remains 38 Maceration 38 Skeletal Analyses 39 Trauma Analyses 40 Positive Identication 41 Unidentied Cold Cases 43 Education of Pathologists and Law Enforcement 44Summary 45 References 46over the body and is mandated to certify the cause and manner of death (Arizona Revised Statutes, Title 11; Texas Code of Criminal Procedure 2003). While the forensic anthropologist may determine the mechanism of injury and whether the traumatic insult occurred ante-, peri-, or postmortem, the forensic pathologist is tasked with establishing the mechanism that caused death and ruling on the manner of death, that is, suicide, homicide, natural, or accidental. In some jurisdictions, a hospital pathologist conducts the autopsy and provides ndings to the coroner or justice of the peace who issues the death certicate. e forensic anthropologist can be called upon to supplement autopsy ndings in a variety of ways.